Cognitive deficits are core symptoms in patients with schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD), but specific and approved treatments for cognitive deterioration are scarce. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that aerobic exercise may help to reduce psychopathological symptoms and support cognitive performance, but this has not yet been systematically investigated. In the current study, we examined the effects of aerobic training on cognitive performance and symptom severity in psychiatric inpatients. To our knowledge, to date, no studies have been published that directly compare the effects of exercise across disease groups in order to acquire a better understanding of disease-specific versus general or overlapping effects of physical training intervention. Two disease groups (n=22 MDD patients, n=29 SZ patients) that were matched for age, gender, duration of disease and years of education received cognitive training combined either with aerobic physical exercise or with mental relaxation training. The interventions included 12 sessions (3 times a week) over a time period of 4 weeks, lasting each for 75 min (30 min of cognitive training+45 min of cardio training/mental relaxation training). Cognitive parameters and psychopathology scores of all participants were tested in pre- and post-testing sessions and were then compared with a waiting control group. In the total group of patients, the results indicate an increase in cognitive performance in the domains visual learning, working memory and speed of processing, a decrease in state anxiety and an increase in subjective quality of life between pre- and post-testing. The effects in SZ patients compared with MDD patients were stronger for cognitive performance, whereas there were stronger effects in MDD patients compared with SZ patients in individual psychopathology values. MDD patients showed a significant reduction in depressive symptoms and state anxiety values after the intervention period. SZ patients reduced their negative symptoms severity from pre- to post-testing. In sum, the effects for the combined training were superior to the other forms of treatment. Physical exercise may help to reduce psychopathological symptoms and improve cognitive skills. The intervention routines employed in this study promise to add the current psychopathological and medical treatment options and could aid the transition to a multidisciplinary approach. However, a limitation of the current study is the short time interval for interventions (6 weeks including pre- and post-testing).

Pancreatic cancer is characterized by an increasing incidence and an extremely poor prognosis. It is resistant to most of the conventional treatment modalities. Histomorphologically, it presents with a strong desmoplastic reaction around cancer cells, and lymphocytes are typically localized as aggregates in the fibrotic interstitial tissue. Using the method of multi-epitope imaging with fluorochrome-tagged specific MoAbs which allows the simultaneous localization and characterization of T cells in tissues, we studied phenotypes and distribution of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) in pancreatic cancer. CD3+ T cells comprised up to 90% of the tumour-infiltrating cells which were either CD4+ or CD8+, most of them being memory cells (CD45RO+). In decreasing order of frequency, T lymphocytes carried the markers for CD45RO, CD18, CD103 and TCR gammadelta. Very few natural killer cells (CD56+) were observed. Twenty percent of CD8+ were labelled with CD103. These CD8+CD103+ T cells, analogous to the gut intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL), were found in the fibrous interstitial tissue. Furthermore, an inverse correlation was found between the expression of CD18, the beta2-integrin, which mediates adhesion of activated lymphocytes, and CD45RO in the CD8+ subset of TIL (P = 0.046). In conclusion, phenotyping of T lymphocytes in pancreatic cancer raises the possibility that pancreatic cancer cells develop several strategies to escape the T cell-induced cytolysis by (i) the aggregation of cytotoxic CD8+CD103+ T cells in the fibrous tissue distant from the tumour cells, and (ii) the presence of CD18-bearing cells which lack the expression of the activation marker CD45RO.

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Medically unexplained and clinically significant symptoms of pain are highly prevalent in the general population. More than one third of all patients in general practices and various departments of hospitals suffer from somatoform disorders with pain being the main complaint of 70% of these patients. This treatment manual is the first disorder-specific, psychodynamically oriented treatment for these patients. Based on psychodynamic-interactional group psychotherapy, it focuses on disorder-specific aspects as well as on psychic and interpersonal problems which have resulted from adverse childhood experiences and insecure attachment. In three treatment phases comprising an "information and motivational phase" followed by "work" and ultimately "transfer" phase spread over a period of 6 to 7 months, between seven and nine patients were treated in 40 group therapy sessions. The group started with psychoeducational elements intended to inform them about their illness. Through the discussion and formulation of individual treatment goals, the patients are drawn into the work phase of the group therapy, in which the relationship of the patients in the group and their behavior is the main focus of the therapeutic interventions.

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